(ThySistas.com) How we raise our children, changes throughout the generations. Back in the day, after school and during high days and holidays, youngsters were not cooped up in their rooms on Social Media. They were out playing in the yard and local streets. They were expected home when it got dark, or when they got hungry.
There was usually a grandparent keeping watch not only over their own grandchildren, but also casting a steely eyed look out over all the children from the local neighbourhood. They didn’t miss a thing, and kids expected a punishment if they stepped out of line.
Opportunities and finances were limited and children very much had to find ways to amuse themselves. This meant they were creative, they made things, which in turn would keep them occupied for hours. There was no instant, quick fix solution to idleness, boredom or lack of things to do. But kids were still happy, and as everyone was more or less in the same boat, nobody felt disadvantaged.
Now things are radically different. We have Social Media to thank for our boys and girls locking themselves away for hours at a time in their rooms. Instead of interacting face to face with their peer group they are communicating through technology. Those same hours that generations before had filled with high spirits, creativity, adventures, and making memories, are now just spent alone in a room, being ‘sociable’ in an entirely different way. Is this really progress, or a backward step? A question that nobody really can answer.
But if our kids are going to kick back in their rooms, what can we do to encourage them to try something a little different, to not follow the crowd and spend hours on Social Media, but instead, to be creative, to learn, and to be a little different in a good way.
Kids need inspiration from people they look up to. They need to find their ‘thing’ and find ways to make that thing into something they can aspire to being good at.
Music
Music isn’t just about playing an instrument or singing in a choir. Yes it’s true, inspirational singers often started their musical journey at church in the gospel choir, but equally, nowadays, young people are being inspired by more contemporary musicians, who started out making sounds in their bedrooms and are now household names across America.
Turning their bedroom into a full blown studio can be a costly exercise, but if you want to lay down some beats you can do no better than to incorporate an alesis vmini 25-key portable keyboard controller into their room set up.
Art
Many young people have a creative side to their art, and this is something that can be done in the peace and quiet of their own rooms. Encourage your sons and daughters in their attempts. Art can be anything from cartoon’s to caricatures, landscapes to portraits. There is so much inspiration out there.
Whenever your children show the slightest interest in something, be positive, nurture their interest. True, it may come to nothing, but you never know!
Staff Writer; Shelia Love